It’s not often that environmentalists and oil company CEOs are on the same page about anything, much less a major piece of energy policy. But when it comes to the “grand bargain” between Ottawa and Alberta, both groups have now made their disdain for the deal clear. The opposition from the oil sands sector wasn’t obvious at first. But the absence of any of its CEOs at Danielle Smith’s May 15 press conference announcing the deal — one that featured prominent business leaders like Atco CEO Nancy Southern, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Deb Yeldin — was conspicuous. Now we know why they weren’t there. On Tuesday, at the Global Energy Show in Calgary, Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie tore a strip off the deal in a speech. It hit all the usual notes for this crowd, from minimizing the reality of the energy transition and misunderstanding the purpose of carbon markets to blaming the federal government for an industry-wide downturn that was actually driven by the collapse in global oil prices.

But its core message to both Carney and Smith was clear: the industry intends to squeeze them. “What is missing and unclear in the MOU is the commitment to regulatory reform that would allow industry to grow production to offset the costs of the carbon capture project and fill the million barrel per day pipeline to the West Coast,” McKenzie said.  

In other words, they want out from under the carbon capture and storage project they’ve been........

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